(CNN) – The woman at the center of one of the 21st century's most salacious political sex scandals said in an interview airing Friday she has no regrets about falling in love with a married presidential candidate.

Rielle Hunter, who carried out an affair with former Democratic Sen. John Edwards while acting as a campaign videographer, made the comments in an interview with ABC News.

"I don't regret falling in love, and I don't regret loving him, nor do I regret our daughter," Hunter said in the interview, portions of which aired on "Good Morning America" Friday.

In August 2008, Edwards admitted to an affair with Hunter, a onetime videographer for his presidential bid. At the time, the former North Carolina senator denied paternity of the daughter she had given birth to six months earlier.

The Justice Department had accused Edwards of using nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions to keep his pregnant mistress under wraps as he mounted a second presidential bid in 2008. But after more than 50 hours of deliberation, a North Carolina jury acquitted him in May on one of the six counts against him and deadlocked on the other five.

Edwards eventually acknowledged paternity of the daughter he fathered with Hunter, and after the May 31 mistrial, he talked about "my precious Quinn, who I love more than any of you can ever imagine."

In the interview Friday, Hunter describes the first time she encountered Edwards.

"He rounded the street corner, and it came out of my mouth: 'You're so hot,'" Hunter said.

She said she accompanied Edwards to his hotel room because she thought, "I could help him."

"What a joke, for the outside world looking in. 'Boy did you sure help him,'" she said mockingly.

The pair's first evening together, Hunter said, was unlike anything she had ever experienced.

"Something internally happened with me," she said. "I responded. I have never seen that before. I had not experienced or felt what was happening before. Intensity like a rock concert."

Edwards' marriage with wife Elizabeth, who died of cancer in 2010, was in shambles before she entered the picture, Hunter alleged in the interview.

"Their marriage was ruined years before I got there," she said, adding that before his relationship with her, he had carried out other extramarital affairs.

"I was not the first," she said.

Elizabeth was not the saintly figure the media portrayed her to be, Hunter claimed, saying the former political wife had another side that was rarely revealed. Elizabeth and John Edwards separated in 2010.

"The full truth needs to be in the public domain," Hunter said. "Their father's not a demon and their mother's not a saint, and I'm not a home-wrecker. We're real human beings, and there is a real dynamic that was going on, good and bad, and we all made mistakes."

soundoff(184 Responses)

Wowsers

Oh and how will she ever expect to have a decent relationship with his children IF they ever do get married – I would not want to be no where near her after all the horrible things she said about their mother! She has no class and no respect for herself OR her precious love child!

June 22, 2012 05:14 pm at 5:14 pm |

PaulBel

The only thing more vomit-inducing than this nasty, classless, publicity-seeking, amoral, shameless person is the slimy guy she did it with. I wouldn't vote for that guy for town drunk. As far as she is concerned, she's going to get her 15 minutes of fame, maybe get rich off of this sordid affair with a book and/or movie deal (if one isn't already in the works) then hopefully the rest of humanity will dump her like the garbage she is.

June 22, 2012 05:19 pm at 5:19 pm |

pockets

This is where society is now, look at TV, and the trash that is on it. Look at the scarping of the barrel with reality shows where a former wannbe from Al aska actually thought she had brains. Her daughter following in her footsteps and on a 'reality' show, btw, what no one will watch. Get that tribe back to the wilds of Al aska where you can see Russia from the front porch. LOL What a sad joke that "family" including the massage's given to the bimbo's "dude" of Al aska. LOL

June 22, 2012 05:28 pm at 5:28 pm |

bad bad bad

John Edwards is a dog that should have been neutered a long time ago. He roams, urinates on everything and fathers unwanted children. Rielle Hunter is a gold-digging, shameless liar who will do anything to get what she wants. She has no class or respect for anyone. She should be spayed too lest some stupid man fails to use protection with her again.

June 22, 2012 05:30 pm at 5:30 pm |

Lydia

I would truly like my $120 back that I donated to John Edward's campaign. He has been the biggest disappointment, but I'm very proud of his daughter, Kate, for standing by her dad. She has had the hardest battle.
Now, here comes Rielle with all of her self-love and acting so innocent. Ha. Both deserve the blame, but she has perfected entrapment.............she's just lucky she was fertile. Otherwise, we would know nothing of her now.

June 22, 2012 05:30 pm at 5:30 pm |

Chill Out

I'm sure all of you who are ripping this woman to shreds are clean and pure and never have done anything wrong, right? Well I'm taking the other side and saying you can't always help who you fall in love with. Affairs happen. Nobody knows what Edward's relationship was with his wife and nobody knows what the relationship between him and Ms. Hunter was or currently is – nor should we. The media gets too involved in people's lives and everyone needs to just chill out and leave these people alone. At least half of the people commenting on this board have likely been cheated on or done the cheating at some point in your lives, so take a good long look at yourselves before you go around judging others.

June 22, 2012 05:31 pm at 5:31 pm |

rosaadriana

Elizabeth may not have been a saint, but John Edwards is a jerk and this woman is a home-wrecker. Maybe she should get a dictionary so she knows what it means.

June 22, 2012 05:40 pm at 5:40 pm |

Kay

John Edwards just proves over and over again how classless he is, this woman is trashing his deceased wife and the mother of his 4 children and he just stands by and watches her do it. He should be ashamed of himself. As for her, I don't know how she can claim to be so broke, I've personally seen her on more than one occasion shopping in Neiman Marcus and my salesperson told me that she is in there frequently. They are both trash and deserve each other.

June 22, 2012 05:46 pm at 5:46 pm |

TC

Only problem I got is she says she has no regrets. Making mistakes and doing things you shouldn't be doing should lead you to regret your actions. So either, she is not truly verbalizing this or she has terrible self-awareness and compassion for the consequences or her actions.

June 22, 2012 05:47 pm at 5:47 pm |

ted

Chill Out – Crawl back in your hole. How about morals to begin with? You are an IDIOT. Case closed!!

June 22, 2012 05:47 pm at 5:47 pm |

die die

she's gonna love Karma.

June 22, 2012 05:53 pm at 5:53 pm |

doug

There is something to be said for experience, he's been an elected Democrat for a long time, so he's been screwing over millions of Americans for years.

John Edwards is your average liberal Democrat, come visit the blue and see for you.

Elizabeth knew she was dying. She knew she would not live to see her daughter(s)/sons marry. She knew her husband was a cheat. I think I might be a little upset too.

June 22, 2012 06:00 pm at 6:00 pm |

dave

Where did the baby come from. Clearly the married guy running for President wanted a baby out of wedlock, right? - I guess Edwards lied to her about being on the pill

June 22, 2012 06:11 pm at 6:11 pm |

Thinkergal

Oh, who cares about this twit? Ratings for the airing of this interview? ZERO

June 22, 2012 06:43 pm at 6:43 pm |

yYZ

Ted – I agree with chill out. We don't know any of the people involved here, so stop judging.

June 22, 2012 06:43 pm at 6:43 pm |

SpeechLess

She ought to be ashamed of herself. Speaking ill of a deceased woman whose husband she cheated with. Go crawl back under your rock. I feel sorry that your daughter has such knuckleheads for parents.

June 22, 2012 06:56 pm at 6:56 pm |

Marty

There are times in life when silence is golden. Whether she caused the marriage to go bad is irrelevant. What is relevant is they were married and having no regret for any part you played! How about the children? When you do not hold any personal accountability for your actions.... that does not say much about you. However, karma, etc., whatsoever you sow, so you reap. I do not want to be around her.

June 22, 2012 06:59 pm at 6:59 pm |

Johnjon

this thing is just pure trash.................. just looking for a meal ticket and she got it, for the 14 years or so.

June 22, 2012 07:00 pm at 7:00 pm |

CBR

Did we really need to know all of this? Does it make the world a better place? This story did not need to be written.

June 22, 2012 07:11 pm at 7:11 pm |

Jan

I heard the teaser story of this interview on GMA and it just reaffirmed my initial negative thoughts about Ms. Hunter. If she is on TV to gain some sort of sympathy, she certainly failed. Shame on ABC for even producing this story. It is all shameful! I'll be watching something else.

June 22, 2012 07:21 pm at 7:21 pm |

GMC123

To Pockets-Pay attention! Wrong person To Chill Out-We've all done things a bit shadey and slimy, but we don't go on TV to try to justify it for "fame and glory". Awful of her to bash the wife.

I find this woman totally nasty, I also believe she's a wee bit nuts.

June 22, 2012 07:48 pm at 7:48 pm |

molybdenum

Chill out – what about Elizabeth Edwards' living children? Should they continue to be collateral damage to Ms. Hunter's incessant need for attention? If she is really continuing a healthy relationship with the former Senator then I would expect that she would not be as concerned about her public image as she would be about how his children perceive her. I would think she wouldn't be granting interviews and making statements about his relationship with Elizabeth if they were truly together.

June 22, 2012 08:01 pm at 8:01 pm |

Puablo

I hate to say it, but she has a point. We're all human beings, we all make mistakes. She shouldn't have said no regrets, cause that's crazy, she has to at least regret the PR fiasco that came out of this. But we don't know what the Edwards' marriage was like, we don't know them personally. It's not necessarily all this woman's fault, but she should probably admit that she regretted having an affair with a married man, even if she had to lie about it.